The expedient of shooting the cable up from a gun was the only one of the many alternatives considered which promised any chance of success. The first attempt nearly proved a “boomerang,” for the weight of the cable deflected the chargeless six-inch shell to which it was attached nearly sixty degrees and sent it crashing through a mule stable, fortunately empty at the moment. A shell attached to a lighter cable went almost equally wide of its mark; in fact, all attempts with high-velocity guns were dismal failures, and it was not until one of the new long-range trench-mortars was brought up that the experiment took an encouraging turn, though success was not won until the cable-line was displaced by a light manila rope. This was fired to its goal--an eminence half a mile distant and a thousand feet high--at the first shot, and afterwards served to drag up a light cable which, in turn, dragged up the heavy one. The single-span _teleferica_ installed at this time--quite free from the menace which had overwhelmed its lower predecessor--was still in use when I visited this sector nine months later. Perhaps the most spectacular exploit ever carried out from a _teleferica_ was that by which a troublesome nest of Austrian machine-gunners were cleared off one of the pinnacles of the great M---- _massif_ in the fall of 1916. At that time the lofty ridge was divided between the Italians and Austrians. The latter had access to one splintered pinnacle which, although there was no room to establish a permanent position on, offered a splendid vantage from which to observe all Italian movements in the valley beneath. The situation was irritating enough for the Italians even when the activities of the enemy were confined only to observation, but when he took to bringing up a machine-gun and peppering--almost from its rear--the headquarters of an Alpini battalion which held an important pass three thousand feet below, it became well-nigh intolerable. What happened was related to me some months later, when I asked the major of this battalion how it chanced that the roof of the officers’ mess, in which we were dining, was armoured with sheets of steel. “Against machine-gun bullets,” was the reply; “there was a time of accursed memory in which the enemy used to bring a gun out on a little splinter of rock, not fifteen hundred metres from here in an air line, and spray the whole of our little terrace with ‘dum-dums.’” “It must have been a bit trying,” I observed. “How did you manage to stick it?” “By keeping out of sight as much as possible,” he replied; “that is, until the day we went after him from the _teleferica_. After that he left us alone until we had time to get a gun rigged up to make him keep his distance.” “Went after him from the _teleferica_!” I repeated, in surprise. “What do you mean by that?”